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Early Jap ...

2K views 14 replies 10 participants last post by  aqbill 
#1 · (Edited)
Last week while out on one of my periodic LGS and pawnshop crawls - (SWMBO had left the door unlocked again after she left for the day) - I had one of those creepy feelings "that I was being watched !". Being careful, not to give the game away that I was onto the spy, I let my eyes roam without that telltale twist of the head.

Sure enough, hiding behind a wide expanse of suede leather sling, I managed to catch a glimpse of polished Walnut and gleaming blued steel nestled in amongst a crowd of mundane antique Remingtons, Sears and Rugers. It looked so out of place amongst that rabble. Without giving the game away I chatted casually with the kid behind the counter ... a fresh consignment from an estate sale.

This morning early, armed with lighted magnifier, bore inspection light, a list of all known manufacturers and serial numbers, and a few samples of SV, IV and HV ammo, I headed back to town for another gander. Oh Joy ! It was still in hiding amongst the rabble !

This time it got the full treatment ! Serial Number ? A first year Nikko Tubular 1973(?) ... S/N T008XX ! Had an original Weatherby 4X50 scope mounted, lenses showing a nice accumulation of greasy film from long storage without lens caps. Other than some slight bruising, but without damage to finish, on the right side of the butt, the woodwork looked almost perfect, apart from long term storage dullness. Nicely skip-checkered on wrist and forearm ... rosewoood tip to forearm and grip with both black and ivory line spacers.

The receiver looked like new apart from dust film ... the barrel had slight freckling just ahead of the receiver on the left hand side. The muzzle crown looked like it had been smithed by an angry beaver, but easily re-cuttable. Whatever lubricant had been applied to the magazine tube and pusher had congealed with age and took some effort to remove ... BUT ... no signs of dings or other damage internally.

The innards ? It had obviously been well-used in in the past ... lots of caked-on powder residue in the inside front of the receiver and packed around all crevices in the bolt and chamber faces. The engine-turned bolt was "tight" ... again congealed lubricant and powder residue. The bore, under the burnt powder residue looked mirror shiny, with real crisp rifling. This is the first time I've ever looked down a XXII bore ... but I got the impression that it has trapezoidal rifling ... ??

Now the $64000 question ... "Can I test fire it to check whether it cycles and also goes into single-shot mode ?"

Yes ... certainly ! Do you have any ammo, or can we lend you some ?"

A target was set up on their indoor range and I loaded 5 rounds of CCI MiniMags ... figured that the HV stuff would be the best bet to start out in case things got sticky. Shooting Offhand, I put all 5 rounds in a nice 1-1/2" group about 2" below my aiming point. The bolt cycled perfectly in semi-auto and locked back correctly in SS mode. Starting to feel very interested !

I repeated the test with Federal AutoMatch, then Norma TacTarget and finally the slow Eley Target. The action repeated its' performance perfectly with each ! 20 shots spread across a 2 to 2-1/2" group !

When I left the store, I heard the soft patter of a rubber buttplate tip-toeing up the sidewalk behind me ... was still there like a faithful dog when I got back to the cabin !

Mick - The Fuzzy Limey
 
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#4 ·
Another pet in the family ...

. . . just like all the other stray dogs, cats and rifles that have joined the household over the years, this new addition has to be cleaned up a bit before meeting the lone top-dog CZ in his safe-house ... nothing worse than finding a bad case of some incurable disease. We've lost too many cats and dogs over the years though too early a meet-up.

So for now the new addition has been quarantined in the basement workshop ... and seems to be quite settled in the 'old red rack' on the bench. As I said earlier its' eyes were a litle bleary, so a quick spray of eyeglass cleaner and and a wipe with tissue left them sparkling bright ... a quick twist on the ocular brought its' reticle into sharp focus.

Don't want to scare it too much yet with too much attention, so other than a superficial wipe-down ... a few quick sprays of CLP in it's hungry mouth to see if the "tartar on its' teeth" would come off ... and a patch down the 'exit channel" I let it rest for the first night.

Like any other new pet, I went online and found a "book of words" on the subject, before I get to giving the new lady a complete "vetting" ! The really big task lays ahead ... what shall we name her ? The Izhmash was easy ... I had just come across Tatiana in an Ian Fleming novel ... !

Mick - The Fuzzy Limey
 
#6 ·
3 Guesses ... !

1: ..... as yet I havn't taken any !
2: ..... no longer have a website on which I can post them as I used to do
3: ..... still have to decipher the instructions for doing it from an as yet non-existent Photobicket or similar site

I'll wait until I get it "fully restored" to take pics ... Today I had it stripped completely and heavily sprayed with CLP ... a lot of energetic "brushing of subsequent slimy crud" ... flushing with BreakFree ... blowing out with canned air. Also polished the mag pusher rod and bristle brushed the the inside of the mag tube.

Inspection of the "working parts" - bolt and receiver - lower feed mechanism and trigger - after cleaning leads me to believe that this 40 year old rifle was used somewhat in its' early life and then put away in the safe. The hardness of the congealed burnt powder residue was unlike anything I've ever seen before. Almost no signs of rubmarks of contacting metal to metal surfaces.

The inletting of the stock was like brand new once the dirt and fuzz were brushed out ... the inletting has to be close to the finest I've ever seen ... would never need a "bedding job". I'd have to guess that this was the first ever time it had been dismantled for cleaning. I rub-cleaned the visible outer surfaces and then went over the whole thing with some "Old English" scratch finish followed by cloth buffing ... It now has that beautiful Walnut sheen ... no real fancy grain but distinctive mineral streaking shows well.

It is all back together now with one main job still to do ... re-crowning the muzzle. I did go out in the bitter cold to the 25 yards test range to check it's operation after assembly ... .5 to .6" groups with Fed AutoMatch and .4 to .45" groups with Norma Tac-22, all hand held sitting at the bench. So ... that's a start !

Mick - The Fuzzy Limey
 
#9 · (Edited)
try again ... !

Yep ! I had read that blurb over and over many times , but somehow never seemed to quite hit the right combination of clicking and pasting - lol ! In my case it's easy to blame it on senility ... !

So ... here goes again ... ?










Mick - The Fuzzy Limey

PS: Whoopee ! At Last ! Question ... am I now an Expert ? ... (Old RAF definition - "Someone who used to Spurt !)
 
#13 ·
For a moment,I thought your story was going to morph into something where you snuck in some CB longs,....and it didn't cycle......and you put on an academy award performance,with frowns,etc,to say that it was a problem gun that they should be happy to part with cheaply.:eek:
 
#15 ·
Good to hear you're still on the bright side of the grass Mick. That CZ Ultra Lux you sold me is the bees knees. Come out and visit us at the new Crooked Oak Range. All the best to you and yours for Christmas and the New Year.

AQBill from Sheffield, Alabama

:F
 
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